excited; and it will not again be stilled, till the year of jubilee has come, and the slaves go free.' New England, &c., pp. 92-109.

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Everlasting honour be to the noble band of American patriots who are exerting themselves to remove the curse from their country, in spite of the scorn, and ridicule, and threats, and personal danger to which they are exposed. But may we now be permitted to ask, whether the popular constitution of the American Government is to be blamed for the bitter fruits of that evil legacy of slavery entailed upon them by the Tory government of George III.? Slavery was devolved upon us by Great Bri'tain,' say the Carolinian slave-owners; and although we cannot admit the validity of the plea as an excuse for retaining the slaves in predial bondage, much less for the revival of the trade in all its atrocity, still, it is proper to bear in mind, that the original sin does not lie at the door of Republicanism. And further, before we could reasonably recommend to the Americans, as a remedy for the social disorder and intestine animosity attributable to this fertile source of evil, an ecclesiastical establishment and a house of hereditary legislators, we must forget how long the court, the peerage, and the Established Church of our own country were identified with that policy which perpetuated the African slave-trade, and how long they resisted the abolition of that accursed piracy, even after the representatives of the people had pronounced upon it an emphatic sentence of condemnation. A reformed House of Commons, reflecting the moral sentiments of the British people, would have abolished the trade twenty years earlier; and it was the extinction of the Tory nomination boroughs which sealed the fate of Colonial Slavery.

The volume from which we have taken the preceding extracts, gives us a more complete insight into the interior character of society in New England than any work which we have yet seen. It is neither a satire nor a eulogy. The Writer tells us, that he can see much in his native land to love, and not a little to de'plore.' The spirit in which he describes the manners and peculiarities of his countrymen is similar to that in which our patriotic poet apostrophizes the old country :

* The jackal Biographer of Johnson, in protesting against the sentiments of his master in condemnation of the slave-trade, consoles himself that the wild and dangerous attempt to abolish so necessary a branch of commercial interest,' would be resisted by the hereditary wisdom of the peers. To abolish that trade,' he says, would be to "shut the gates of mercy on mankind." Whatever may have passed elsewhere concerning it, the House of Lords is wise and independent!'

If,' he says, these delineations shall make the inhabitants of 'New England more rightly prize their institutions, or shall com'municate to the inquiring elsewhere correct information respect'ing our country, the object of the Writer will be attained.' The sketches are ten in number; and the titles will give a general notion of the contents.

I. The Farmer.-II. Ecclesiastical Organization.-III. The Church. IV. The Revival.-V. Slavery.-VI. The Insurrection. -VII. Holidays.-VIII. College Life.-IX. The District School.X. The Village Choir.'

The second chapter contains much valuable information, and presents a very pleasing view of the state and prospects of the people of New England as regards their religious condition. We scarcely could have expected to find in a volume issued from the depository and focus of anti-Dissenterism, such a passage as the following noble testimony to the efficiency of the Voluntary Principle.

Our church members are continually disciplined in the Christian duty of contributing of their property to advance the cause of Christ. And if that cause cannot be sustained in this way, we are satisfied that it can be sustained in none other. All that we ask of the government is, to let us alone. The only protection we desire, is the protection which every honest man and good citizen deserves.

'An appeal to the feelings of the Christian is almost invariably successful. And these appeals have been so successful in our churches, that the Societies of Christian benevolence, numerous as they are in our country, are in a state of high and increasing prosperity. The habit of contributing money-of making pecuniary sacrifices to sustain the cause of Christ, exerts so beneficial an influence upon the hearts of Christians, that, in almost all cases, permanent funds are considered a curse, rather than a blessing. There is hardly an intelligent Christian to be found in the New England States, who does not feel that almost the greatest possible calamity which could befal the church, would be the patronage of the government.

A few ignorant and unprincipled men, as they see the unwearied activity of Christians, and the triumphant success which is crowning their cause, endeavour to excite odium against religion by raising the cry of "Church and State." And some are so easily duped, as really to believe that Christians desire to make converts by law, and to build up churches by penal statutes. But the fact is, that almost every intelligent Christian in the land says to the government, "Protect us in our rights, as men and citizens, but as Christians let us alone." Whether the Christian community is correct in these views or not, it is not for me to decide. My object is, to state facts, without eulogy or censure.

It may also be stated, that the result of every year's experience, confirms Christians in these views. They are more and more convinced that there is no mode of operation so energetic and effectual, as

that of voluntary association. It is this which has rolled back the tide of intemperance which was heaving its surges over our land. It is this which is planting churches in every little village in our western wilderness, and supplying those churches with pastors. It is this which is placing a Bible in every dwelling, and establishing Sabbath schools within the reach of all the children of the land. It is this which has converted Hawaii, dark and dismal as she once was, to a Christian place, and has gathered her roaming children to the school and the church. It is this which is now instructing the rangers of our own western wilds, and which is spreading out an increasing influence to all quarters of the globe.

No! Christians ask not for the aid of government. They ask only for the hearts and the energies of Christ's devoted friends. With these, they believe that the triumphs of Christianity will be carried to every shore, and through every land. Every man is at perfect liberty to pay for the institutions of the Gospel or not, as he pleases. If he is an infidel, and does not wish to pay for the support of religion in any shape, no one troubles him. Each individual pays to what denomination he pleases, and what sum he pleases, and no more. Office and honour are alike open to all. Each one, without reference to religious belief, enjoys all the privileges our country affords.

Truth is thus left to the defence of those who love her cause, and we would not have it otherwise. As there can be no compulsory conversion, so neither would we have the cause of Christ sustained by compulsory support. And we do believe that no greater calamity could befal the American churches, than for the government, during the ensuing year, to erect a church in every village, and take those churches under its fostering care. We feel an assurance that the result would be to make religion suspected and odious to the people, and to fill the pulpit with worldly men, grasping only at the honours and emoluments of the office. A few years would shew that the energies of the church were paralysed, and the land would be enveloped in spiritual death. Whatever may be said of the destitution of religious instruction, in the new settlements of our western territory, Christians do not believe that government influence will remove that destitution. The only way in which it can be done, is by that energy which animated the primitive Christians, and which now animates many an American church: it is by sending men, who, with the spirit and self-denial of Paul, will be willing to spend their lives in the incessant labours which these new countries require.' pp. 42-45.

Far as the churches are from the standard of duty required in the Bible, great as is the distance they walk behind the Saviour, they are perfectly convinced that no good would be accomplished by calling in the aid of the civil government. They do most undoubtingly believe that God will accomplish the redemption of the world by rousing the church to more vigorous efforts, and not by calling in the assistance of those who do not love his cause.

Those who in this land are raising the outcry of "Church and State," may be satisfied that there is no measure against which Christians would more strenuously contend. We rejoice that we here can meet upon an unobstructed arena, and commend truth to the protec

tion of her own lawful weapons. With those weapons she is now triumphing; she is carrying her conquests through the land, and those who hate her reign, tremble, as they see that her reign is approaching." New England, pp. 46, 47.

The statements and reasonings of the Writer have not, however, been suffered to pass through the Thames Ditton press without animadversion; and the Editor's impeachment of the statistical calculations taken from the American Quarterly Register will require notice. The extreme exaggeration of that document, it is remarked, is seen at a moment, if the various items are only added together on the basis laid down at the commencement of the statement; of reckoning a gross population of nine for each actual member of a church." Thus calculated, the entire number of persons belonging to some one or other of the various religious bodies in the United States, would exceed the whole actual population by four or five millions. That an American writer should have fallen into so ridiculous a miscalculation, is quite incredible; and the truth is, the blunder upon which this charge of exaggeration rests, is the Editor's. No such basis of calculation is laid down, except in the particular case of the Orthodox Congregationalists. That denomination embraces, in New England, the mass of the community as to numbers, wealth, and intelligence; and it is confined pretty nearly to that section of the United States. Estimating the ministers and churches 'not connected with the State Associations, as well as those 'which are, and also the churches and ministers of the same ' denomination out of New England,' the American Writer says, we may place the total as follows: 1100 ministers; 1250 'churches; 155,000 communicants. Estimating the communi'cants as one ninth of the population, the whole population will 'be 1,395,000.' The number of communicants is a fact easily ascertained; and we may take it for granted that this estimate rests upon actual returns. If, then, the number of the population represented by that of the communicants be too large, it would follow that the communicants are still more numerous in proportion to the population than is here assumed; that, consequently, the religious condition of New England is still more in advance of the state of things in this country, than had been imagined. Is this what the Editor would have us infer?

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Of these 1100 ministers, and 1250 churches, according to the American Quarterly Register, New England contains 803 pastors and 1044 churches, with 94,865 communicants, exclusive of those in the 226 churches of Connecticut, of which the return is not given. Taking these at 25,000, we shall have in round numbers 120,000 communicants, which would, on the assumed basis of calculation, give a population of 1,080,000. The total po

VOL. XIV.-N.S.

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pulation of New England is nearly two millions; and we see nothing incredible in the supposition, that one half may be considered as belonging to the denomination which comprises the mass of the community. The Orthodox Baptist Congregationalists of New England compose 738 churches, with 65,540 communicants. The Protestant Episcopal Church has, within the dioceses of Vermont, Connecticut, and the Eastern Diocese, 138 clergymen *. There are twenty-one Roman Catholic chapels in the diocese of the Romish bishop of Boston. The Unitarians have about 150 churches in New England +. There are also, in a few places, some respectable Methodist Societies. We are unable to give the numbers of communicants belonging to these several denominations; but they comprise altogether a small proportion of the population. The Orthodox Congregationalists and the Baptists compose the two principal sects of the New England States; and the former is, of the two, much the more influential and numerous.

In no other part of the United States, however, would so large a proportion of the people be found actually belonging, by attendance, to some one or other of the several religious denominations; for in no other part has such ample provision been made for the instruction of the people. To suppose that the statement was meant to apply to the southern States, where the slaves form from one-third to one-half of the population, or to the newly settled back woods, to States where the total number of inhabitants is not above two or three to the square league,-is so palpable an absurdity, that we are at a loss to conceive how the Editor of this volume could have committed the ludicrous blunder upon which he founds his remark, that the scale would yield for the whole ' of the United States,' nearly eighteen millions of professors'. If we would compare England and America in respect to the public provision of religious instruction, and the actual attendance upon public worship, we ought in fairness to limit the comparison to the Northern and Middle States; or, if we take the whole of the Union into our account, it would be but reasonable to extend the comparison, on the other side, to those portions of the Empire which most nearly correspond to the Southern and Western States, say, Jamaica, the Cape Colony, and Australia.

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In most of the principal towns, there are highly respectable and influential Episcopal societies; but you find none in the country, unless here and there some single individual, by his own personal influence, retain one in struggling existence.'

+ In the eastern part of Massachusetts, in the principal towns, the Unitarians embrace most of the wealth and literary and political influence. But their influence is hardly felt, except in a few counties around Boston.'